I am fairly new to backpacking, but I have hunted/fished/camped all my life in East Texas, Colorado, and California. My young kids (4, 10, 12) limit me to weekend overnight camping trips, or day hikes Geocaching. I am also an avid mountain biker. Currently I live in Colorado Springs, Co at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Pike National Forest surrounds me at 9000 - 14,110 feet (2743 m - 4301 m). Snow can happen 10 months out of the year and summer is the hottest reaching 65 F + (18 C +), the other months average 45 F (7 C).

INITIAL REPORT

PRODUCT INFORMATION & SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: When I grow up Inc. Year of Manufacture: 2007Manufacturer's Website: Snot SpotMSRP: US$ 9.95Listed Weight: There is no listed weight for this on the web siteMeasured Weight: Hand Spot: 3/8 ounce (10 grams)Glove Spot: 1/2 ounce (14 grams)

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

My first initial impression was yuck, who would buy one of these? Then I got to thinking about it and how many times I've actually DONE what its designed for. BRILLIANT! And said let's try it out. It's definitely something different. It's easy and simple to use.

READING THE INSTRUCTIONS

No instructions were provided as this thing is pretty self explanatory. It did however have a picture of how it's supposed to fit on your hand or glove.

Image Courtesy the Snot Spot

Image Courtesy the Snot Spot

TRYING IT OUT

The Snot Spot is made from 100% polyester fleece. It is super soft and feels really great to the touch. There is a loop that I can slide my index finger through that is approximately 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) inside diameter when flat (Step 1 below). Then it wraps around my wrist and closes with a hook and loop closure (Step 2 below). The fleece covers the back of my index finger and the back of my hand (Step 3 below). The wrist closure makes a loop anywhere from 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) inside diameter up to 5 inches (12.7 cm) inside diameter all measured when squished flat. The hook and loop closure is sewn into the material and is approximately 1.5 inches long (3.8 cm) by 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) wide. The snot spot is 6 inches (15.2 cm) from finger tip to wrist strap, and 10 inches across when laid out from hook and loop to hook and loop.

Yep that's some snot left over in the last image. However it just shows a little bit as I have used this thing a few times and it does a pretty good job of self cleaning. One thing I have noticed though is in all the product pictures it shows the finger portion reaching well past the middle knuckle on the index finger. In actuality on my hand it slides up closer to my knuckle and hand (see step 2 & 3). This forces me to wipe more on the back of my hand versus my preferred method of wiping down my finger.

The Glove spot is a little bit bigger as it's designed to fit over a winter glove. It measures 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) long from finger tip to wrist loop. The inside diameter of the finger is 2 inches (5 cm) when flat, and the diameter of the wrist loop is 6 inches (15.2 cm)

TESTING STRATEGY

Well sometimes the simplest plans are the best. I plan to do a couple of things with the snot spot. Wipe my nose on it and wash it. Wash Rinse Repeat. Pretty simple test plan if you ask me.

SUMMARY

So far this seems like an interesting piece of gear. It's lightweight, small and very soft to the touch. I have noticed though that it is easily misplaced especially in my cluttered gear areas.

I've used this item numerous times over the last two months. Locations have ranged anywhere from fly fishing the Arkansas River in Canyon City, Colorado, up to the base of the Rocky Mountains of Pike National Forest just west of Colorado Springs. Elevations ranged from 5332 ft (1625 m) down at the Arkansas River to 7000 feet (2134 m) at my house up to around 10,000 feet (3048 m) in the local mountains. Weather has been mostly cold and windy with temperatures hovering in the mid 30's F (2 C) thus causing the perfect conditions for my nose to run.

PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD

I've used the Snot Spot on a couple of different fly fishing and ice fishing trips. It has been cold and windy out on the river and the ice, and this gave me the perfect chance to wipe my nose on it. I can say with out a doubt, it works. It catches snot really well.

I was initially hoping I could use the Snot Spot outside of the intended use. Getting a piece of gear that is dual use is money in my book. I wanted to hook my flies into the Snot Spot for easy access instead of having to dig into my vest and get my fly box out. To give those unfortunate souls who don't fly fish an idea of how small the flies are, I use a set of hemostats to hold on to the fly while I tie it to the line. So off I go placing some commonly used flies onto the Snot Spot. After wiping my nose a few times, and noticing just how close I came to my nose with the flies, I decided this was probably not a good idea. It would be just my luck, that I didn't place a fly far enough away from the main snot collection area of the Snot Spot and end up hooking my nose. The other problem with storing the flies on the Snot Spot is they do not come out of the material very easily. When its cold outside, and my fingers are numb, I don't need the small flies to be harder than normal to remove.

The Snot Spot is made from some magic material that is very cool. It seems to almost self clean after each use. I wipe my nose, see the wet snot and after a bit, I don't see it any more. I tend to wipe my nose down my finger, but like I noted in the initial report, the hand spot tends to ride up towards my knuckle. This limits the surface area I have to wipe with. Maybe making a whole finger out of this material, or making the loop tighter so it stays towards the end of my finger might be better.

Also with just the finger section I end up wiping my nose in the same spot. If the snot has not dried from a previous wipe, then I get to wipe over a wet spot, and that just bugs me. With the amount of surface area that covers the back of the hand, I can rotate out the areas I wipe my nose on.

The larger glove spot fits well over gloves. Because it has to slide over a padded finger, the finger portion of the glove spot stays in place a lot better than the regular snot spot does on a bare hand.

Like most things fleece though the snow tends to gather up on the snot spot while hiking. I didn't really like this as now the snot spot was cold and wet, and like I mentioned before I hate wiping my nose on a wet spot.

SUMMARY

So far this thing has done exactly what its intended to do, be a snot magnet. It has held up well, and doesn't seem to need to be cleaned a lot as it appears it to have some magical self cleaning powers. Now if the rest of my gear would do that, I'd be in heaven.

Please check back in approximately two months, on or around 10 July 2007 to see my long term report on this product.

Thanks to BGT and When I Grow Up, Inc. for allowing me to participate in this test.

Due to the weather not co-operating and keeping the temps cool through out the test period, I will have to add more information for the LTR section of this report after the 2007-2008 winter season. Please check back sometime around March 2008 for the rest.

Thanks to BGT and When I grow up Inc, for allowing me to participate in this test.

This report was created with the BGT Report Generator.
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

Product tested and reviewed in each Formal Test Report has been provided free of charge by the manufacturer to BackpackGearTest.org. Upon completion of the Test Series the writer is permitted to keep the product. Owner Reviews are based on product owned by the reviewer personally unless otherwise noted.